Our Backyard – Lorne

LORNE – HERE AND THERE

As the first real “blast” of cold weather that reminds me of the cooler months ahead, isolation in Lorne continues to be as good as it could be anywhere. As much as our office front doors have been closed for five weeks, today our operation has been a bit like a duck on water. All looks calm above the surface but below our smaller teams are busily going about their daily tasks. While the majority of our team are on heavily reduced hours and some laid off until normality returns, we are so lucky to have such great support from them all as we navigate these unchartered waters. There’s one thing for sure, there will be a number of people, and businesses that will come out the other side of this current pandemic in a better position than when they entered. I know in my own circumstance the past five weeks have provided an opportunity for completing all those tasks that time never seems to allow. Training sessions on advanced technology in real estate and fine tuning and building personal data bases have been combined with a number of face to face catch ups with many. Like so many these “face to face” meetings have predominately been on zoom, my knowledge was so limited prior to this all starting, and my outgoing call log so much bigger than before. We are all well positioned to meet the challenges that lay ahead!

LORNE – MARKET ROUND UP

Fair to say that April 2020 won’t go down as one of the biggest sales months in our company history, but then again as far as challenges go it certainly will. Challenges on every front from looking after our team, helping landlords and tenants while at the same time ensuring that our own business budget remains as balanced as we can possibly keep it – and that’s not easy. Here in our Lorne office we were only able to contract two transactions for the month as consumer demand has fallen to below seasonally adjusted levels.

We are however as optimistic as ever as the Coronavirus restrictions appear to be on the horizon for lifting, although we will need to continue to be cautious, we feel sure that the return to the Lorne market will be a similar time frame to its on-set.

There has been one theme that has rang loud in my ears after speaking with a large number of non permanent local residents and that is the love of Lorne. Conversations around various walks that residents never had the time to do, camaraderie of saying hello to people you not always see. It’s back to the basic things of life, and it’s so good. (But bad!)

There are no restaurants open, no theatre, shops, gyms, Live Wire Park but still everyone here openly acknowledges just how great Lorne is. Once stay at home restrictions are lifted we are sure that others will want to enjoy the same, plus added enjoyment of all other services we are so lucky to have.

Kind regards,

Ian StewartFor and on behalf of the entire Great Ocean Road Real Estate team

LORNE – A LITTLE SECRET

If you’re planning on being on the Great Ocean Road over the next seven days you need to be aware that the road will be closed next Wednesday the 6thof May between 7pm and 6am the following morning.